®
oundtable:
The future of higher ed As the education landscape transforms in the wake of the pandemic, one factor is certain: online learning will have a bigger role.
Ken Atwater
President Hillsborough Community College
Where do you see online learning moving from this point? You would be surprised at the number of people who were skeptical about taking online learning classes prior to the pandemic. We’ve learned what we need to do to make those classes more interactive and engaging in order to provide a greater chance for people to be successful. We’ve also learned that interaction, whether virtually or in-person, makes all the difference. All of our classes have to be engaging and we’ve learned how to do that in our online environment. We are retrofitting over 200 classrooms at the college for hybrid, synchronous, in-person and online classes. How has the pandemic translated into a push toward talent upskill, reskill and career change? Anytime you look back after a recession or a downturn, the country’s community colleges, which already play an essential role in sustaining the community’s economic engine, are critical in helping people recover from these difficult times and in this case, the pandemic. We see ourselves playing a leadership role in this recovery as well. In the Tampa Bay area, for example, if you look across all segments of the transportation sector, there are about 15,000 jobs that perform an important role within the supply chain. If you look at what is necessary to fill those jobs, such as diesel and automotive technicians and welders, all require advanced skills from programs that we offer. We graduate over 220 technicians every year, with an average salary of $40,000 per year, and their economic impact is valued at over $600 million on an annual basis. 152
| Invest: Tampa Bay 2021 | EDUCATION
Timothy Beard
President Pasco-Hernando State College
What is your outlook for the next year? We have a lot on the table. The college received $6.6 million from the first stimulus package. Half of that went to student scholarships. The other half to support the transition to full online education during the pandemic and to build future online capabilities. The second stimulus provided us with $14 million. We are injecting $3.3 million into student scholarships and the remaining $10.7 million will be used to continue enhancing the delivery of online courses, support services, campus safety and to offset the college’s loss of revenue. The state has held back 6% from our 2020-2021 budget, which was a big hit for us. We are still unsure about how much of that will in fact be held back because the legislature has to hold a special session to decide on the matter. Despite that, with the decrease in adjunct faculty cost due to a decline in enrollment, cost savings from unfilled vacant positions, use of CARES funds, and reduction in administrative costs, the college is working to minimize the effect of using reserves to cover any budget shortfalls if the 6% holdback remains. What programs are seeing the most demand? Nursing and healthcare, primarily. Nursing has been a signature program here for some time. It is a tough, highly rigorous program, designed under high standards. PHSC’s Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program was ranked No. 1 out of 164 public and private programs in 2019 by the website NursingProcess.or. We also offer a Bachelor of Applied Science in Supervision and Management degree and an all-online Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. Radiology is also in high demand, as well as our Emergency Medical Service (EMS) program.
